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eMarketer’s latest forecast of mobile phone usage in the UK paints a very bleak picture for BlackBerry, as the number of UK consumers using the operating system will decline dramatically this year and dip below 1 million users.

While BlackBerry’s market share has been slipping for several years now, eMarketer’s latest figures indicate that it now has as few as 700,000 users in the UK, with this number expected to fall to 400,000 by 2017.

'Best Business Blunders' and 'Great Laughter Spots' are two of the best read topics in theMarketingblog. If you are interested in talking about various sponsorship opportunities please call me Will Corry on 01784 434 412

Whether you’re choosing a new bank, credit card or other financial product, customers are bombarded with messages and campaigns for brands across all forms of media; from billboard, TV advertising and sponsorship to press, email and online collateral.

How do financial institutions make sure their campaigns and messages stand out and resonate with today’s audience? What are the most effective media channels to use? What makes a campaign for your brand successful?

Here at SPA Future Thinking we help a wide variety of financial institutions as well as media agencies and broadcasters answer these questions. Through bespoke surveys we use our knowledge of the sector to show what’s working and what isn’t, from campaign appeal through to the effectiveness of various campaign touchpoints.

Richard Price, head of marketing at @BrittanyFerries Brittany Ferries, commented: "January remains a key time for planning holidays, especially for families with school age kids, so we want to reach out to this audiences with the aim of getting on their radar for both our key destinations and our travel genre.

The creative itself features warm and recognisable scenarios involving holidaymakers discovering new experiences in a bid to evoke nostalgia and remind potential customers of the things they love about holidays.

Jon Elsom, executive creative director at Bray Leino, said the campaign "builds on our 'any' brand platform in an inspiring and heart-warming way".

Elsom added: "Our new TV and cinema spot tempts you to discover things about France and yourself, alongside digital and print work that delivers travel bags of emotion underpinned with helpful holiday info.

"The campaign look and feel continues to position Brittany Ferries as the premium ferry and holiday operator.

Campaign activity, including TV, cinema, press, online, PPC and web, runs from the end of December through the key holiday booking period at the start of 2015.

7 in 10 Britons have
played some form of video game in last 6 months; more people 45+
playing than kids/teens

Apps most popular format; smartphones most popular device; consoles
account for most time

Trivia/word/puzzles are favourite genre – driven by older women

London, 17 September
2014: Driven by 25-44 year old
women downloading free puzzle and trivia game apps, there are now
more women playing video games than men, according to a new report
from the Internet Advertising Bureau UK (IAB) on the British
game-playing audience.

The “Gaming Revolution” study, carried out by independent research
agency Populus, reveals that females account for over half (52%) of
people who’ve played some form of video game¹ in the last six
months, compared to 49% three years ago. The gamer audience has now
hit 33.5 million Britons – 69% of the population.

Not just child’s play…
The study also reveals there are now more people over 44 years old
playing games (27% of gamer population) than children and teenagers
(22%). Over half (56%) of people aged 45-54 have played a video
game in the last six months, as have 44% of 55-64 year olds and
even a third (32%) of 65-74s.

Free mobile apps driving
the change
The growth in women and older gamers has been driven by free games,
primarily mobile apps. Six in ten (61%) games acquired in the last
six months were free. Apps are now the most popular video game
format (played by 55% of the online population) followed by online
games (48%) then disc-based games (40%). Over one in four (27%)
people played all three formats – rising to 70% of 8-12 year olds.

Consequently, smartphones are now the most popular device for
playing games, cited by 54% of respondents – a quarter of whom play
on their phone every day. Then follow computers (51%),
consoles (45%) and tablets (44%). The average gamer plays on three
different devices.

“The internet and mobile devices have changed the gaming landscape
forever,” says Steve Chester, Director of Data & Industry
Programmes at the Internet Advertising Bureau. “They’ve brought
down the barriers to entry, making gaming far more accessible and
opened it up to a whole new audience. In the past you needed to go
out and buy an expensive console and the discs on top to get a decent
experience, now you can just download a free app.”

Trivia/word/puzzles are favourite genre – driven by older women
One third of respondents, overall, cite trivia/word/puzzles as
their favourite game genre – compared to over half (56%) of women
at least 45 years old and half of women aged 25-44.
Action/adventure/shooter games are the next favourite, cited by 18%
of all respondents, rising to 45% of 16-24 year old males and 26%
of men 25-44.

Time’s up
The average gamer aged 16+ spends around 11 hours gaming a week,
compared to 20 hours for 8-15 year olds. 6-8pm is the most popular
game-playing time.

The average Briton spends six hours per week playing games, just
over 11% of their 52 hours of media consumption a week – the same
share accounted for by social media and slightly less than
listening to music (14%).

Looking at share of game-playing time by device², consoles account
for 30% of time followed by computers (24%), smartphones (21%) and
tablets (18%). Looking at share of time by format², online accounts
for almost half (47%) of game time followed by apps (23%) and disc-based
games (22%).

In-game advertising
Two-thirds (67%) of game-players are aware that advertising appears
within some games (in-game advertising). Six in ten (61%) are happy
to see ads in games if it makes them free, while a quarter (24%)
think it makes games more realistic and immersive. The number of
ads acceptable in a free game (1.7 every 30 minutes) is twice as
high as in paid games (0.8).

Chester concludes: “Getting in-game advertising right is a very
delicate skill. In-game ads can enhance the experience by adding
realism or extra content – as long as they’re not interruptive and
irrelevant. If they are, it can have the opposite effect and stop
people playing.”

¹For the purposes of data in this news release, playing video games
in arcades was not included.
²Both online and disc-based games can be played on consoles and
computers so, for example, console time does not equal disc-based
time.

About the Internet Advertising Bureau
The Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) is the UK trade association
for digital advertising, representing most of the UK’s leading
brands, media owners and agencies. Given the rapidly evolving
nature of the digital landscape, the IAB works to ensure that
marketers can maximise the potential of digital media and mobile
devices, helping members engage their customers and build great
brands.

By disseminating knowledge and fostering dialogue through
research, policy guidance, training and events, the IAB aims to be
every marketer’s authoritative and objective source for best
practices in internet advertising. To access the IAB’s current
research, policy briefings, training opportunities and events
schedule, please visit www.iabuk.net.

The business’s European growth has led the way. The first half of 2014 also saw Adyoulike run more than 400 native advertising campaigns in Europe for leading brands including L’Oreal, Coca-Cola and BMW, compared to the 300 campaigns it ran during the entirety of 2013.

Adyoulike integrates across publishers seamlessly to deliver brand content in the heart of editorial content and user experience.